Capitals regain winning thread

Alexander Semin scored the lone goal in the shootout and Olie Kolzig made 31 saves as the Washington Capitals beat the New York Islanders 2-1 last night for their first win in four games.

Alex Ovechkin, who leads the NHL with 33 goals, failed to hit the target after being allowed just two shots and also misfired in the shootout after also failing to register a point in Saturday's 2-0 defeat against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

But he was just happy that Washington had won for only the third time in 11 games and said: "We will take these points. I'm happy we win. We lose eight of ten and we forget what it feels like winning. This game was important to us."

Sheldon Souray scored the winning goal as the Montreal Canadiens beat the Penguins 4-3 in overtime then heaped praise on team-mate Tomas Plekanec.

Souray scored 2:01 into the extra period of play to send Pittsburgh to their first defeat in seven days.

Plekanec scored twice in regulation before setting up Souray for the winner. It was a sweet moment for Souray as he had been ejected from Montreal's 5-4 shootout loss in Pittsburgh on Wednesday for fighting with Colby Armstrong.

"Tomas played a really excellent game and he's done that over the last few games," Souray said.

"He's stepped up offensively and we need that. You look at his two goals, they were just the result of hard work and being in front of the net. He was willing to pay the price and he got rewarded for it."

Sidney Crosby, who had an eight-game point streak broken Saturday in Pittsburgh's 2-0 win over Washington, assisted on power-play goals by Jordan Staal and Ryan Whitney.

The 19-year-old forward leads the NHL with 59 assists and 84 points but he was stripped of the puck in the Canadiens zone by Plekanec on the play that led to the winning goal.

"I was just making a move and when you make a move that high in the zone you know it could be trouble if you lose it there," Crosby said. "That's a bad area to lose the puck, so obviously I have to learn from that one."

The Penguins' streak had been their longest since they won six in a row in January, 2002.